The Case For the Clippers

The so called secondary teams in the Los Angeles market have made the biggest splashes in their respective offseasons. The Angels went from the family friendly boutique team in Orange County to real World Series contenders with the signings of Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson. After David Stern nixed the Lakers deal to acquire Chris Paul, the Clippers obtained Paul in a trade that included three players and Minnesota's first round pick in 2012.

Los Angeles may always be a Lakers town because of their tradition, but that doesn't mean the town isn't big enough to share with the buzzworthy Clippers. The bottom line is when you sign a superstar people talk about you.

The Clippers already had an extremely marketable human highlight reel with Blake Griffin. With the additions of Caron Butler, Chauncey Billups, and now Paul you have to start talking about the Clippers as contenders in the west.

The Lakers may very well still be the better team and win more games, but even long time Los Angeles sports writer T.J. Simers acknowledges there is no sizzle with the Lakers. Barring injury, I like the Clippers big three of Paul, Griffin, and Butler more than Kobe, Pau, and Bynum. I like the Clippers role players better too.

There is also the overwhelming feeling that nothing ever goes right for the Clippers, and something is bound to doom this team. I have every reason to believe that the Paul signing is the start of things going right for LA's other team.

The team that used to promote the opponent's best players in their advertisements.